As was true of any other text in the period before printing, the Bible could be
duplicated only if copied by hand. The text of this twelfth-century Latin Bible is written
on smooth vellum in a miniscule hand. Though the script is difficult to read, it had the
advantage of compressing many words onto a single page. Typically, wide margins were
deliberately left for the later addition of hand-written comments, although in the
production of Bibles such generous use of leather was intended to lend a sense of luxury
and significance. One can still see where the pages are ruled with lines and pricked with
tiny holes to guide the scribe.